Here's why it's great that so many people are quitting their jobs

For the month of July, the JOLTS "quits rate"
remained at 1.9%, down slightly from the cyclical high of
2.0% in March, but way up from its 2009 low of 1.3%. This upward
trending quits rate could be interpreted as a good economic sign
for two reasons.

First of all, although "quitting" has a negative tone to it, as
Fed Chair Janet Yellen sees things, the quits rate is an
indicator of rising worker confidence about the labor market.

During good economic times, people feel comfortable quitting
a job because they believe that they can soon find
another (or because they have already found another one.) On the
flip side, when there are layoffs during economic downturns, few
are bold enough to risk jumping ship.

Furthermore, "the quits rate tends to be a leading
indicator of wage growth," as Deutsche Bank economist
Joseph LaVorgna points out. "As the chart below
illustrates, the quits rate historically leads the change in
average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers
by three quarters."

In other words, the fact that people want to quit and/or
are quitting their jobs, could be a sign that the economy is
getting better, and that we'll see wage growth soon.